Sermon #  123           Series: Isaiah

 

Title: “Ye Are My Witnesses”

 

Text:  Isaiah 43:10-12

 

Subject:  Believers and Their Witness

 

Date:  Sunday Evening - July 19, 1992

 

Introduction:

 

God is jealous.  He will not tolerate any competition for his glory or on rival to his honor.  Therefore, throughout the Scriptures he condemns idolatry.  He never lets up.  Whether by the thunderous word from Moses, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” or by the tender words of John, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols,” God constantly warns us against and condemns idolatry, because we are all idolaters by nature.  God holds all false gods and all false religion in utter contempt; and so must we.

 

NOTE:  Read chapter 44 of Isaiah.  The whole chapter is a word from God belittling and poking fun at idolatry!  (Read vv. 15-17).

 

In 20th century America, this enlightened, educated, refined society, they are not many people left who worship totem poles and tadpoles.  No one these days goes out to the woods, cuts down a tree, and whittles out a god.  Yet, idolatry is more rampant today and has taken a far more dangerous form than ever.

 

Today men and women go into the dark forests of their own depraved minds, and from the rotten timbers of their corrupt imaginations, they carve out an imaginary god to suit their ideas of what God ought to be.  They prop him up, call him Jehovah, the mighty God, Jesus Christ and worship him.  But their god lacks the attributes of God.  Their Christ bears no resemblance to the Christ of the Bible.  Their holy spirit is not the Spirit of grace.  The god they worship is a false god, a worthless idol.  I lay this charge at the door of all Arminian, freewill, works Religion.  Call it by whatever name you wish.  It is idolatry!  Sheer idolatry!-

 

 

Proposition:

 

In our text tonight the Lord God declares that the people he has saved are his witnesses, the proof of his singular Deity as God alone and Savior alone- You who have experienced the grace of God are the proof that he alone is God and he alone is the Savior of men- (Read with me- Isaiah 43:10-12).

 

 

Let us now hear what the Lord God, the great, eternal I AM, Jehovah has to say in this text.

 

I.  “Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord.”

 

A witness is a person who has seen something, one who knows by personal, first hand experience the facts of a matter.  You who are born of God have personal, first hand experience of his grace and are eyewitnesses of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

 

  1. You have been redeemed by effectual blood.
  2. You have been called by irresistible grace.
  3. You have been loved with an everlasting love.
  4. You have been created and formed by sovereign grace (II Cor. 5:17).

 

II.   ”My servant whom I have chosen.”

 

Those who are his witnesses individually are his servant collectively.  All God’s people are one.  We are all created to serve one Master.  And we are together his servant- (I Cor. 6:18-20).

 

”Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it!”  (John 2:5).

 

I delight in this next word- “My servant whom I have chosen!”  We are his servant because of his choice (John 15:16).

 

This is God’s election!  Blessed are those men and women whom God has chosen from eternity- (Eph. 1:3-6; II Thess. 2:13-14).

 

Why did he choose us?  Was it just an election to special service, or to some specific office?  Oh no!  The Lord God says I have chosen you…

 

III.  “That ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he.”

 

Election is unto salvation.  Were it not for God’s eternal election no one would ever know Christ, believe Christ, or understand who he is and what he has done.  Election is the cause of salvation, the fountain of all grace, and the cause of all true faith.  Every denial of eternal election is a denial of the gospel of free grace.  It is an attempt to make salvation to be in some way the reward of something in man!

 

‘Tis not that I did choose thee,

For, Lord, that could not be;

This heart would still refuse thee

Hadst thou not chosen me.

My heart owns none before thee;

For thy rich grace I thirst,

This knowing, if I love thee,

Thou must have loved me first!

 

Read on--

 

IV.  “Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.”

 

This is a declaration of three things:

 

·         God’s Eternality.

·         God’s Independence.

·         God’s Solitariness- Our God is God alone.  He has no rival.  As he alone is God, so he alone is our Savior.  Read the next line.

 

V.  “I, even I am the Lord; and beside me there is no Savior.”

 

A.     The only true God is the God who has chosen a people from eternity whom he saves in time, the God of eternal, sovereign, effectual election.

B.     Jesus Christ, our Savior, is himself God.

C.     Christ Alone is Savior; and he saves Alone.

 

Salvation is altogether the work of Christ.

 

·         He Promised It!

·         He Purchased It!

·         He Performs It!

·         He Preserves It!

·         He Perfects It!

Now look at verse 12-

 

V.  “I have declared and have saved, and I have showed, when there was no strange god among you!”

 

Long before men began to invent their strange gods, Christ our God had already determined what he would do and had already begun to do it.

 

A.     He declared what he would do in the covenant of grace.

B.     He has done what he said he would do- “I have saved.”

C.     He has shown and revealed his great salvation by the gospel- (II Tim. 1:9-10).

 

VI.  “Therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.”

 

Read Mark 5:18:20- Let me see if I can stir up our hearts as God’s witnesses and help you to be a better witness.

 

Here is a sinner to whom Christ had shown great mercy.  Now he tells him to go home to his family and friends and be the Lord’s witness.

 

A.     He does not say…

 

1.       Go home and denounce and degrade your family and friends.

2.       Go home and strive to convince everyone to embrace election, predestination, and divine sovereignty.

3.       Go home and condemn those who do not see what you see.

 

B.     He says, go home and tell what great things the Lord has done for you.

 

·         Not what great things you have done.

·         Not what great things you have learned.

·         But what great things you have experienced!

 

This is the way to witness.  There is never a more interesting story than the story a person has experienced, lived, and felt.  If you would really get the attention of sinners, tell them what Christ has done for you and in you.

 

Notice:  Our Savior says, “Tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.”  The story we have to tell is…

 

·         A Story of Free Grace!

·         A Story of Amazing Love!

 

“Ye are my witnesses!”  You are lights in a world of darkness.”  You are a city sit upon a hill.

 

·         Be a Clear Witness.

·         Be a Constant Witness.

·         Be a Consistent Witness.

·         Think what witnesses we shall one day soon be for our God (Eph. 2:7).

 

NOTE:  Everyone of us are witnesses for him or against him.